Through centuries of outside rule under the Habsburg Empire, followed by Nazi and later Soviet occupation, the culture and language of the Czech people have endured in part through puppetry. The region first embraced the theatrical form in the 17th century. A golden age developed in the latter half of the 19th century, concurrent with the rise of a nationalist movement and the eventual formation of an independent state.

Melissa Starker, For The Columbus Dispatch

Through centuries of outside rule under the Habsburg Empire, followed by Nazi and later Soviet occupation, the culture and language of the Czech people have endured in part through puppetry.

The region first embraced the theatrical form in the 17th century. A golden age developed in the latter half of the 19th century, concurrent with the rise of a nationalist movement and the eventual formation of an independent state.

Puppet theaters presented works that were accessible to all. They clung to the Czech language, despite occupying forces that imposed German as the official tongue. Troupes traveled the region in the early 20th century, presenting classic dramas and native folk legends, while families built private puppet theaters at home.

The modern history of the centuries-old art is explored in the expansive new exhibit “Strings Attached: The Living Tradition of Czech Puppets,” a collaboration of the Columbus Museum of Art, the Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, and the Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague.

Starting with well-worn pieces from the 1850s, more than 100 puppets displayed in loose chronological order fill two gallery spaces and spill into the hallway. Some are presented in their original stage settings, from a multilayered miniature performance area with a hand-illustrated proscenium to a modified dining table with built-in storage that allows a single puppeteer to stage a telling of Snow White.

The collection represents a stunning diversity of styles, as seen most clearly in the recurring characters such as Kasper. A jester figure loosely based on the British puppet Punch but not inclined toward assault, he is cute and childlike in the hands of artist Josef Chochol, and pug-nosed and mischievous-looking in an interpretation by Josef Adamek.

Adamek lends a similar playfulness to a devil, another character seen in multiple iterations. A greater sense of menace is felt in Alois Sroif’s Mephisto and Burgess. But Petr Matasek’s ingeniously ribald Devilyn, a heavily painted figure hiding a devil under her skirts, evokes laughter instead of fear.

The influence of the Bauhaus movement appears in reproductions of puppets from a 1925 presentation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. A contemporary artist, Michaela Bartonova nonetheless retains some of the grotesquerie of German expressionism in her rendering of a priest, a charlatan and a dog clad in armor.

The late-20th-century move into more experimental territory is represented by pieces such as Petr Nikl’s Linkboys, human/animal hybrids that hold light sources, as well as found-object creations by famed Czech puppeteer and animator Jan Svankmajer; and examples of “black theater” sets, which are decorated in Day-Glo paint and illuminated with black lights. They are literal highlights in an unusual, charming show.

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